Tax

Getting your tax return in order for 2015
The 2015 tax year is already nearly halfway through (where does the time go?). So we thought now would be a great time to remind you of some of the more important tax issues to consider when planning your return for this year.
Changes to the repair and capitalization regulations
There’s been an ongoing debate over the need to change the new repair and capitalization regulations – and small businesses have lost this particular battle with the IRS.
The new regulations from the IRS mean you now have three possible choices for handling repairs, supplies and asset purchases. And you’ll need to make these choices annually and...

Planning your tax year and arranging your finances may not sound like the most interesting thing you’ll do this year, but we are certain it will be much more interesting if by doing so you discover that you have less tax to pay.
In an ideal world, every year you will have managed your financial affairs so that your taxes are minimized as much as possible.
We realize that this can be incredibly difficult to do. It’s already February, so before you know it April will be upon us and there will be no more tax planning to do.
If you can spare even an hour or two, we would encourage you to talk with us now about arranging your finances so that your taxes are not the great...

Buying a business can be a very exciting experience, full of hopes and ideas and goals and dreams. It can also be a little overwhelming – scary even! There are so many aspects to consider, fears that crop up along the way, and thousands of decisions to make.
Here are some of the things you should consider and do if you are going to buy a business:
Have A Transition Leader
(This is someone like us here at Henry Jones, CPA.) Your team leader will engage experts as needed such as attorneys, insurance agents, appraisers and bankers. These experts are very good at what they do, but only have a partial view of your financial and business situation. You need someone who...

This is part of a series of the Top 10 Bookkeeping Mistakes Small Businesses make. To read the others, click here.
Whether you have employees or not, misclassifying them is a classic bookkeeping mistake. That may sound strange, but you need to think about your employees not the way you, or even they, do – but the way the IRS does.
There are at least two ways you can misclassify employees:
1. Your employees are actually independent contractors.
This is a huge issue that the IRS and the Department of Labor are really cracking down on. Most business owners don’t realize that this is an issue with a number of federal, state and even local governments.
This mistake...

We all want to do the best for our family, and those we care about, after we die. If you’ve invested a lifetime of hard work in setting up and successfully running a family business then you are likely to feel some concern about what will happen to the business too.
You may want the business to be handed over to the next generation or, if it must be wound down, that it is done so in such a way that it delivers maximum benefit and minimum stress to both family members and employees. Proper business transition planning will ensure that things happen as you wish them to after your death as well as after your retirement.
It’s very critical to get good advice...

With only months to go before the major impact of the Affordable Care Act is felt, many family businesses are yet to come to terms with the implications of the new health care issues that are addressed.
While the aim of the health care reform act is to make health insurance more affordable by reducing the cost of health care, there are many concerns that the impact on businesses could be catastrophic. However, many of these fears have been overstated, and it is important to avoid panic and knee jerk responses that could have an adverse effect on the long term prospects of your business.
Here we will summarize the main implications of the act and how the various...